UNC_Samurai:The Navy also gave reporters a look at HUQ-1's drone command system:

[www.txis.com image 850x647]

Heh, won a memorable match with one of those...my opponent thought he was staying out of range of my drone stack, until I pointed out he was using pursuit plotting, and HAD to move just one more hex toward me...POW, 144 damage to a shield, bridge hit, captain killed.

Almost as funny as the time he ran over his team mate while his expanding sphere generator was fully charged...

PunGent:UNC_Samurai: The Navy also gave reporters a look at HUQ-1's drone command system:

[www.txis.com image 850x647]

Heh, won a memorable match with one of those...my opponent thought he was staying out of range of my drone stack, until I pointed out he was using pursuit plotting, and HAD to move just one more hex toward me...POW, 144 damage to a shield, bridge hit, captain killed.

Almost as funny as the time he ran over his team mate while his expanding sphere generator was fully charged...

Sounds like some of the battles I was in. They didn't call me the U.S.S. Swiss Cheese for nothing. God, I was terrible player!

Crop of sci-fi novels to spring up about drones being distracted by "I have 50,000 dollars I inherited. Give me your account number so I can transfer" or drones transmitting it continuously and shutting down computers everywhere.

PunGent:On a serious note, any Navy guys want to explain why the went with helicopter drones, rather than fixed wing?

For tending sonar buoys?

My guess is anything the Navy would be tracking and attacking can't outrun even a helicopter so why have something that needs to fly orbits around a target instead of something that can just hold station and fire away.

Fizpez:PunGent: On a serious note, any Navy guys want to explain why the went with helicopter drones, rather than fixed wing?

For tending sonar buoys?

My guess is anything the Navy would be tracking and attacking can't outrun even a helicopter so why have something that needs to fly orbits around a target instead of something that can just hold station and fire away.

And the logistics and trust invovled with landing something unmanned on a cleared helipad on the back of a frigate vs. trying to catch a arrestor cable coming in at 100kts with a billion dollars of assets on a carrier deck.

Fizpez:PunGent: On a serious note, any Navy guys want to explain why the went with helicopter drones, rather than fixed wing?

For tending sonar buoys?

My guess is anything the Navy would be tracking and attacking can't outrun even a helicopter so why have something that needs to fly orbits around a target instead of something that can just hold station and fire away.

True...but I'd imagine fixed-wing drones have better endurance and time-to-target than helicopter drones, much like the Navy's jets have better speed than it's manned helicopters.

They deploy any 'regular' drones off carriers/other ships? If you could pitch one off a destroyer, even, seems like you'd get some aerial recon bang for your buck...recovery could be tricky, of course.

Have to make seaplane drones, and bring back the old-school floatplane recovery cranes :)

Recalling, once again, the original Star Trek episode where two countries fight with computer simulations to preserve their infrastructure (roads, buildings, libraries, schools, etc). So humans get a warning their area has been hit, then all affected walk into an incinerator.

SPOILER

Kirk, at the end, blows up one of their computers. The leader says, now the other side will think we are really attacking! There will be destruction, mayhem, horror!

To which Kirk replies, then you will know war and knowing war, you may choose to end it.

And this is where we are heading -- we are preserving the US soldiers but using drones means it doesn't cost us anything to kill. At least when we put our own people in harm's way, we might consider not fighting at all. Now we can accidentally obliterate children with impunity.

lymond01:And this is where we are heading -- we are preserving the US soldiers but using drones means it doesn't cost us anything to kill. At least when we put our own people in harm's way, we might consider not fighting at all. Now we can accidentally obliterate children with impunity

Peiopel have been "preserving soilders" with every advancement in military.

Bows, muskets, machine guns, artillery, bombs, nukes, etc.

Switching to drone actuall has little impact on our ability to control air space and reign damage down.

lymond01:Recalling, once again, the original Star Trek episode where two countries fight with computer simulations to preserve their infrastructure (roads, buildings, libraries, schools, etc). So humans get a warning their area has been hit, then all affected walk into an incinerator.

SPOILER

Kirk, at the end, blows up one of their computers. The leader says, now the other side will think we are really attacking! There will be destruction, mayhem, horror!

To which Kirk replies, then you will know war and knowing war, you may choose to end it.

And this is where we are heading -- we are preserving the US soldiers but using drones means it doesn't cost us anything to kill. At least when we put our own people in harm's way, we might consider not fighting at all. Now we can accidentally obliterate children with impunity.

So long as they aren't white, Jebus-loving, 'Murikan children, who really cares?

Well, you gotta bribe enough countries to overturn the UN ban, otherwise it's just not worth it....if you run police state, build X2 police powers units instead, you can double em up as garrison troops if your armor tech is good enough...throw in AA defense versus those pesky missile attacks once you get multiple abilities...

DarkSoulNoHope:He says most Navy drones now are operated by contractors overseen by military personnel.

Ok, this is farking creepy.

Saw that. Whisky Tango Foxtrot...Over? If they have any kind of weaponry on them how is this even legal under international law. Wouldn't it be a violation of the Geneva Convention? Seriously we outsource killing to civilian video gamers?

lymond01:Recalling, once again, the original Star Trek episode where two countries fight with computer simulations to preserve their infrastructure (roads, buildings, libraries, schools, etc). So humans get a warning their area has been hit, then all affected walk into an incinerator.

SPOILER

Kirk, at the end, blows up one of their computers. The leader says, now the other side will think we are really attacking! There will be destruction, mayhem, horror!

To which Kirk replies, then you will know war and knowing war, you may choose to end it.

And this is where we are heading -- we are preserving the US soldiers but using drones means it doesn't cost us anything to kill. At least when we put our own people in harm's way, we might consider not fighting at all. Now we can accidentally obliterate children with impunity.

give me doughnuts:lymond01: Recalling, once again, the original Star Trek episode where two countries fight with computer simulations to preserve their infrastructure (roads, buildings, libraries, schools, etc). So humans get a warning their area has been hit, then all affected walk into an incinerator.

SPOILER

Kirk, at the end, blows up one of their computers. The leader says, now the other side will think we are really attacking! There will be destruction, mayhem, horror!

To which Kirk replies, then you will know war and knowing war, you may choose to end it.

And this is where we are heading -- we are preserving the US soldiers but using drones means it doesn't cost us anything to kill. At least when we put our own people in harm's way, we might consider not fighting at all. Now we can accidentally obliterate children with impunity.

So long as they aren't white, Jebus-loving, 'Murikan children, who really cares?

The last time we fought a full scale war against an enemy that wasn't Caucasian was Vietnam.

meanmutton:give me doughnuts: lymond01: Recalling, once again, the original Star Trek episode where two countries fight with computer simulations to preserve their infrastructure (roads, buildings, libraries, schools, etc). So humans get a warning their area has been hit, then all affected walk into an incinerator.

SPOILER

Kirk, at the end, blows up one of their computers. The leader says, now the other side will think we are really attacking! There will be destruction, mayhem, horror!

To which Kirk replies, then you will know war and knowing war, you may choose to end it.

And this is where we are heading -- we are preserving the US soldiers but using drones means it doesn't cost us anything to kill. At least when we put our own people in harm's way, we might consider not fighting at all. Now we can accidentally obliterate children with impunity.

So long as they aren't white, Jebus-loving, 'Murikan children, who really cares?

The last time we fought a full scale war against an enemy that wasn't Caucasian was Vietnam.

You're thinking of the Korean War, which technically never ended. 'Nam was a 'police action'